MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Fox: Mercosur must become Latinamerica's strong voice.

Mexican president Vicente Fox confirmed his country will formally request to become an associate member of Mercosur during the block's coming presidential summit to be hosted this Friday by Argentina in Puerto Iguazú.

In an interview with Argentine media Mr. Fox said that during the last three years Mexico has "effectively" begun "intensely" looking south and now wishes to join Mercosur, because Mercosur must become the "strong voice of Latinamerica".

Mr. Fox indicated that in recent years he traveled three times to South America, Mexican Foreign Affairs Minister is constantly in the area and "and we haven't missed a single hemispheric meeting". "Besides we have trade agreements with Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay; our strategy is associate member first, such as Chile, and from then on advance".

When asked if he was aware some Mercosur members would like Mexico to sign a full free trade agreement before joining, Mr. Fox revealed that Mexican businessmen have invested over five billion US dollars in Brazil and trade between his country and the block is already above five billion US dollars.

But even as important Mexico is now the "world's ninth most dynamic economy, with more exports than the whole of Latinamerica together", stressed the Mexican president who admitted that after three years of slow growth following the September 11attacks, "unemployment has dropped to 3,4%, -the lowest in Latinamerica--, and GDP is expanding at an annual 4%".

Regarding the Iraq war when in spite of overwhelming pressure from the United States and Britain to support the invasion, Mexico (and Chile) as non permanent members of the United Nations Security Council did not yield, Mr. Fox recalled that "we quickly formed a team and agreed".

"We proved to be a strong voice in the world, and that is one of the reasons why we're coming to Mercosur, why we want to work next to Argentina, with Brazil, so together with Chile and Mexico it becomes the strongest voice in Latinamerica and this way we can achieve a solid presence in world markets, in the political and diplomatic affairs of the world".

Further on Mr. Fox revealed that Mexico leads a group of fifteen countries that are strongly lobbying for deep UN reforms, including greater representation in the Security Council, human rights policies, International Justice, fighting poverty and new instruments to ensure economic and social development.

"We want an integral reform, turning the XXI century into the century of multilateralism and of the United Nations".